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Family, Health Most Important Aspects of Life

by David W. Moore

Money, religion, friends, and work roughly equal in importance

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- A Gallup Poll conducted last month shows that
Americans rank their family and health as the two most important
aspects of life, among nine that were measured. Their work,
friends, money, and religion are viewed as roughly equal in
importance, but considerably below the importance of family and
health. Of somewhat less importance are leisure time and hobbies or
recreational activities. Of least importance are community
activities.

How Important Are Various Aspects of
Life?

Dec. 5-8, 2002

While work (73%) and friends (70%) rank higher than money (67%)
or religion (65%), based on the percentage of Americans who rank
them as either extremely or very important, the last two reflect
more intense feelings. Twenty-seven percent rank each of those
items, money and religion, as "extremely" important. By comparison,
only 21% and 24%, respectively, say work and friends are
"extremely" important to them.

These ratings are very similar to those measured last year.
(Health and money were not included on the list in 2001.)

There are very few differences in the importance given to these
aspects of life between women and men, or among different age
groups. One major exception is that women are more likely than men
to give high ratings to religion. Also, the older women are, the
higher they rate the importance of religion, a pattern that is not
found among men.

Importance of Religion: By Age and
Gender
(% Rating Religion "Extremely" or "Very" Important)

Dec. 5-8, 2002

Fifty-six percent of men under 50 say religion is "extremely" or
"very" important to them, compared with 65% of women under 50 who
give those ratings. Among men 50 and older, 59% give religion a
high importance rating -- only three percentage points higher than
the younger group of men. Among women 50 and older, however, 83%
give religion a high importance rating, 18 percentage points more
than the younger group of women, and 24 percentage points more than
men in their age group.

On all other items, men and women give very similar importance
ratings. However, there are differences among respondents by age
group on their ratings of friends. About 8 in 10 people 50 and
older rate friends as extremely or very important, compared with
67% of people in the 30-49 age group, and 59% of people under
30.

Importance of Friends: By Age
(% Rating Friends "Extremely" or "Very" Important)

Dec. 5-8, 2002

The importance of work is about the same among all ages, except
for the pre-retirement age group (50-64). Almost 8 in 10 (79%) of
that group gives work a high importance rating, compared with about
7 in 10 among each of the other age groups.

Survey Methods

The latest results are based on telephone interviews with 1,001
national adults, aged 18+, conducted Dec. 5-8, 2002. For results
based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95%
confidence that the margin of sampling error is ±3
percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording
and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce
error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

Please say, for each of the following, how important it is in
your life. Would you say extremely important, very important,
somewhat important, not too important, or not important at all. How
about -- [RANDOM ORDER]?

Slightly more Americans agree (52%) than disagree (45%) that the federal government is responsible for making sure all Americans have healthcare coverage. This balance of views is similar to last year.

Americans' daily self-reports of spending averaged $98 in November, up from $93 in October. The latest figure is the highest average recorded for the month of November since Gallup began tracking consumer spending in 2008.